Hi all
Up to now, I’ve been using Grumbacher artists acrylics (they come in a tube) for my armor washes. However, more and more I see the professionals using oil-based paints. SO this weekend, I made a trip to Michael’s and bought three tubes of oil paint; black, raw umber, and something siena, can’t remember the exact name.
Anyways, my questions:
What can I thin the paints with to use as a wash? I’ve heard that turpentine works well. Also, what can I use to clean my brushes with afterwards? I’ve heard of white spirits, but frankly I have no idea what they are, so if anyone can elaborate on that, it’d be appreciated, and what the advantages of one over the other are.
2)When I lay down the wash, I’m assuming that the thinner will evaporate quikcly (relatively) and leave the paint in the recesses. Since oil paint dries slower, will I be able to blend in this paint after it’s on the model?
Mineral spirits is what I use to thin oils for washes. You can find Mineral Spirits anywhere they sell lacquer thinner or turpentine. You could also use turpentine, but I don’t like the odor or the sticky feel of it. I clean my brushes with lacquer thinner, but don’t use that as a thinner for a wash, it’s much too hot & may damage the paint job. Oils do dry slower, so you have time to do some blending, but washes are more thinner than pigment so they still dry relatively quikly.
[#ditto] the use of mineral spirits with your oil colors. Make sure that you use a cured gloss coat (Future) prior to using your oil wash. This wash will not penetrate Future so it’s easy to wipe off.
Thanks for the info. I called Home Depot, and they carry it in quarts and gallons, so one purchase should last me a while.
As to the gloss coat, I’m going WAY against the norm here, but I’ve never applied gloss coats prior to my washes, as they’re usually localized to recesses, joins, and not overall washes. I’ll try the standard fare first ,then if it’s no good, I’ll try the gloss on first.
I would avoid using turpentine as a thinner. I recently applied a turpentine based wash to my T-34, and it ate away at the finish something fierce. In a the areas under the sponsons, where I was more liberal in application, it orange peeled through a couple well cured coats of Future over a couple more well cured coats of enamel. In other areas where I gave it a light pplication, it still kind of lifted and roughened the Future. Fortunately, it’s a tank and a T-34 at that, so I’ll be able to hide most of it and refer to the rest as “wartime production workmanship”.
For my turrent which I washed separate from the hull, I used regular enamel thinner. It worked great with the oil paints, and did not eat through the Future.
Yeah the future over the paint is a must if you don’t want it to affect the undercoat… also it allows a little better surface to get the wash into tiny crevices etc without it sticking to the paint…
there is a couple of good articles about it on swanny’s website. www.swannysmodels.com - one on future as an overcoat and one on weathering techniques…
—edit—
what they listed to thin oils with works well, I use “Turpentine subsitute” mine is called Turpinate and I have heard of Turpatine as well… no smell, not oily and it does the job… you can get them at Hobby Lobby and Michaels… they also have water soluable oils at michaels but I haven’t tried them yet, bought a tube but it didn’t say water soluable on the tube so I dont know which one it is!
i agree, mineral spirits is the best to thin and apply a wash with. turpentine is only a couple notches below lacquer thinner on the “hot” scale, so i’d stick with mineral spirits. later.
I have found Humbrol Enamel thinners to be really good for an oil wash. It seems to be very mild, wicks along the panel lines really well and i’ve never had it damage an acrylic gloss coat of Pledge One Go (Aussie Future). I have heard that lighter fluid works very well also but I have never tried it. Zokissima, you may find that a gloss coat will help by allowing the capillary action drawing the wash along the panel lines to work better, plus if some wash gets where you don’t want it I think it will be easier to clean up without leaving marks etc.
I went to Naptha as the thinner for oil washes because of the high evaporation rate. I don’t use a gloss coat under because I don’t wipe the wash. I float it on well thinned, adding pigment as needed, and move it around with a brush. I found a bunch of small plastic cups with covers at the super market. They fit so tightly the oil paint is often OK to use even after several days. Fun trying a “negative” wash like I did on my german- gray finish on my Tiger I. I used yellow ochre and it gave a wonderful dusty look to the tank.